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Welcome to FISH FOOD TIMES
Nov. 2019 issue No.191
The situation of fish food in Bangkok
Vast wetland
This year's overseas fish situation is Bangkok, Thailand. It was 5 days and 4 nights from the end of October, and it was actually a 3-day visit to Bangkok and the surrounding area. This is the first time in eight years since I visited Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam in October 2011.
My friend since elementary school has been enthusiastic about visiting only Thailand every year, but I was wondering what kind of country Thailand is called the land of smiles. There are 73,000 Japanese long-term residents in Thailand (2018 survey), and many long-term residents seem to have many overseas representatives and their families who have entered major Japanese companies as one of the overseas factories. However, it seems that there are many people who started life in Thailand seeking new possibilities as a single person, not just a major company, and this time also met with a typical person of such an example.
Bangkok is a city surrounded by ponds and canals, and is located in a low-elevation swamp. The swamp extends not only around Bangkok but also in a vast area. When the plane crossed the mountains of Vietnam and Laos for a while, the Thai wetlands that were gradually visible were spacious. Even if we looked from the window of an airplane with a speed exceeding 1,000 km / h, it really spread over a wide area so as to feel how far it would last.
In Thailand, most of the area except for the mountainous area in the north and the plateau area in the northeastern part seems to be flat, and the big road seen from the airplane window was a very long straight line. The next day I got in a car and it was a lot of roads that were straight enough to get tired. Speaking of the area where I acted, the impression of Thailand was “a flat land with no mountains”.
The reason why the land is flat seems to be the area where the soil is flattened and vast by the power of water. The existence of large and small rivers and innumerable canals and ponds proved its existence, and it was a fact closely linked to the existence of freshwater fish.
Bangkok is dominated by shrimp and catfish living in large and small rivers and countless canals and ponds, as well as a variety of freshwater fish, such as African cultivated fish called Tilapia. Because Bangkok faces the sea, saltwater fish exist, but I felt that it was not comparable to the large presence of freshwater fish.
Maeklong railway market
The first day ended with a move to Bangkok, and the second day left the hotel at 5:30 in the morning, first heading to the Maeklong railway market.
Maeklong railway market is located in the coastal town about 80 km west from Bangkok city, and this is a well-known place in the world with a rare scene where the city's shops pop out on the track It is. As you can see in the image above, the sales stand on the sales floor protrudes above the railway, and a pedestrian walks between the rails. This railway is not an abandoned railway, but the diesel train actually goes back and forth about 5 times a day. To that end, the sale stand is equipped with a caster, so it can be pulled back quickly so as not to obstruct the passage of the train.
Speaking of why it can be cleared before the train passes, the railway market is just ahead of the end station Maeklong station as shown in the image below, and the train needs to decelerate to stop at the station, There are circumstances that have to be very slow. Using this slow movement of the train, the store can retract the sales stand to the back of the train without getting in the way.
The Maeklong railway market is located in the coastal town, so it has not only freshwater fish but also a variety of saltwater fish,the fish in the image below were sold.
| Catjish | Barramundi |
| Rock crab | Fresh water ray |
| Spear squid | Dried Spanish mackerel |
| Steam Indian mackere(Pla-tu) | Dried Indian mackerel(Pla-tu) |
| Dried prawns | Dried frog |
Among them, Pla-tu is interesting.I n Japan, it is a saltwater fish called Gurukuma, at first I misunderstood the dried horse mackerel.
| Steamed Pla-tu in a bowl |
Pla-tu is sold throughout the city, and some of them are placed in styrofoam trays, but most of them are put in a round steamer woven with bamboo without being cooked. The necks were folded in the same way and I felt it was interesting that they were forced into a round steamer.
Pla-tu is a popular Thai soul food fish, soaked in soup, eaten with spicy miso and vegetables, peel off the fried Pla-tu at the restaurant, and with the shallot and lemon In addition, there is a dish called Mien Pla-tu that is eaten wrapped in pepper leaves.
Damnoen Saduak Floating Market
After this, we headed to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, about 20 km north of Maeklong. Before I went there, I was curious about what the floating market was and why it was necessary.
| Canal where the floating market is located | Shops along canal and small boats selling beverages |
| Cut fruit selling boat | A small boat selling frying pan food |
| Fried banana selling boat | A bathing scene of a certain age woman |
After visiting the floating market, I was able to understand the close relationship between the wetlands and the canal. The wetlands around Bangkok are “canal roads” and “boats are cars”, so the shops along the canal instead of the road do business towards the water boats, on the contrary, I understood that there was a relationship of trying to do business for people who lived along the street and who worked in the store. Originally, the relationship should have been carried out in detail as part of life, but now it seems to be aimed at attracting tourists as a show, and it seems that it is different from the previous figure I also felt it.
After that, I went to Ayutthaya dynasty about 160 km northward for about 3 hours with lunch and went sightseeing including elephant riding experience. However, the contents of the afternoon are not related to this article so I want to omit it.
I've never seen a country with such a rough driving
I moved about 400km by car in the day. I was not driving myself, but I was very tired. Let's touch a little about the Thai traffic environment that I felt as a result of a 400km car movement during the tired day.
Speaking frankly, my impression is that I have never seen a country with such rough driving. I decided to rent a rental car for most of my travel abroad until the year before last. But in the year before last Italy, I was disgusted with Italian driving manners that rarely use turn signals, and I had a break into a cold sweat that could cause a traffic accident on the highway between Pisa and Florence. In addition, I had a terrible experience, such as being in a no entry zone and being fined for traffic violations in Florence. Therefore, from last year's trip to the US and Canada, I decided to ask for local one-day and half-day tours and a traveloco guide, and decided not to drive by myself anymore.
So I did this in Thailand, but I really felt that this judgment was really good. Anyway, Thai people are "driving cars very rough". It's normal for any car to get over 80km / h in Bangkok, with very little turn signal, and even if you use a turn signal, it's only when you forcibly get in between the car. Also, even if the car stops due to a pedestrian crossing signal, there will be no car that stops, and it will normally rush into the pedestrian crossing. So pedestrians cannot cross the pedestrian crossing very much. And if a traffic breach hits a policeman, in most cases it will be canceled by giving a small bribe to the policeman. This is not what I heard, and I actually came across a bribe to white police officers. That's why there is no traffic manners, and everyone is free to do anything.
At present, Bangkok has few toll expressways, and the distance is short, and when going out to the suburbs, there is a free highway with three lanes one way. There is no signal anywhere, so every car runs at 120 to 150 km / h. And there was no 3D crossing structure, and I thought that it would be almost impossible for Japanese people to think about how pedestrians should cross the road.
According to the announcement of a survey by an American research company in February 2017, Thailand was killed by 36.2 people per 100,000 population (by the way, Japan is 4.7 people), and the world's worst in traffic accident mortality, Thailand has the worst disgrace in the world due to traffic conditions. In Thailand, it has been a long time since traffic accidents caused by drunk driving and traveling without wearing helmets on motorcycles have been problems, but WHO is concerned about road maintenance in Thailand, road maintenance management, vehicle maintenance standards, road traffic regulations, etc. It points out that execution is not enough. There are many other accidents that do not appear in the statistics, and the actual figures are said to double from 1.5.
The author had imagined a “two-wheeled vehicle flood” like Vietnam Ho Chi Minh before entering Thailand. However, there were no such two-wheeled vehicles, and it was an overwhelming car-centered society that overturned my previous expectations. Furthermore, pickup trucks have penetrated at a level higher than that of the United States, and it was estimated that nearly 90% of all cars including sedans were Japanese cars. Assuming the reason, Thailand is the same as Japan with left-hand traffic and right-hand drive, so it is thought that it was easy to export from Japan in the past time, and automakers all made factories in Thailand, It seems that the price advantage by local production was built up, and the position where Japanese cars occupy an overwhelming share was built.
On the other hand, all taxis are Japanese cars, and the writer has a low taxi fare, so I used a 100% taxi to move around the city without using any bus or subway. However, the manners of taxi drivers are bad, and passengers have to tell the destination when getting in the taxi, so always open the door and tell the driver first, but do not operate the meter, almost 1.5 times I often get a fee, and I was disgusted with the driver's attitude.
Although I was accustomed to such an unpleasant attitude, the taxi fare was much cheaper than in Japan, but the image of “Thailand for the Smile” gradually faded away.
Thai fish market
The main theme in Bangkok was on the third day. Mr. Traveloco, who lives in Thailand, is supposed to guide you through the Thai fish market, and after that, he planned to investigate retail conditions such as supermarkets and department stores.
The meeting time at the hotel was specified at 3am. That was because the start of the fish market auction was 4 o'clock, so it was time to leave. The target fish market is the Samut Sakhon Market, which is the largest wholesale market in Southeast Asia, handling not only fish but also other fresh foods.
It was “bidding instead of auction” that started at 4 o'clock. I was in time for the bidding start time, but unfortunately I was suddenly warned by a person like a market official and I couldn't do what I wanted. For this reason, I took a hidden shot using the camera's time-lapse function, but I was very disappointed that I couldn't take any of the images that were in focus.
Although the focus has been blurred due to the automatic shooting of the camera at regular intervals using the time lapse function, here are some images that seem a little decent.
| Barracuda and Rock crab | Maybe a small squid with frozen sushi |
| This is Pla-tu | Is it a yellow croaker? |
| Barracuda | Mackerel tuna、Lemonfish、Giant trevally |
Even though the purpose of the shooting was very dissatisfied, it was a good harvest just to know that there was such a large wholesale fish market in Bangkok and that bidding was taking place early in the morning.
There was a retail market nearby where the fish purchased there were carried and sold. Its name is Mahachai Market, and interestingly there is Mahachai Station adjacent to the market, and there was a street scene of an open-air market that sells on the same rail way as the Maeklong Railway Market.
| Scene at Mahachai Market | Railway market near Mahachai Station |
| Slice of fish soaked in something like malted rice | Maybe fish soy manufacturing prcess |
| River crab | Various kinds of shrimp |
After this, I went to the nearby Mahachai fishing port to see the fish landing. And at the Mahachai fishing port, fish were being landed.
| Fishing boat landing fish at Mahachai fishing port | Scenes where fish are landed |
| Landed Bigeye scad | Scenes where fish are sorted by size |
| Another fishing boat is landing a fish at the right end | Pla-tu just landed |
This allowed us to check the status of landing at a fishing port in Thailand. We also observed the state of the wholesale market and the status of fish sales at retail stores. Next is the order of the fish sales at supermarkets and department stores.
Fish department of the Thai supermarket
Entering for breakfast was a 24-hour Super Food Land in Thailand with 21 stores in the Bangkok metropolitan area, Pattaya and Korat.
I got permission to take a picture of the fish section here. However, because there are only so many fish counters in the image below, I had to wonder how much fish were sold a day.
The assortment of fish basically had no sashimi or sushi, only raw salmon blocks and tilapia fillets for raw consumption, and everything else could be guessed to be for heating. There was a sashimi in the gourmet super siam paragon store in Siam in Bangkok, but the yellowfin tuna sashimi was sold for about 120 yen per piece, so it seemed that sashimi is a product specialized for some high-income earners.
By the way, let's introduce the Japanese style izakaya “Yen” sashimi in Bangkok and the sushi “sushimasa” nigiri sushi.
| 399 baht | 1,300 baht |
Imagine how the price of this sashimi and sushi will be perceived in Thailand. The average salary of a person working in Thailand today is said to be 300 baht per day, so I would like you to imagine the level of cost performance.
The sashimi in the above image was probably a thawed product because yellowfin tuna was a thawed product, raw salmon was an air transport product, and yellowtail had a discolored blood. Sushi was named “MASA GRAND SET” in the special category of this store, and it was judged that the quality was high because ootoro and cyuutoro were included, but I thought I would not eat sushi for 1kan500 yen in this store.
Thai seafood dish
Here are some of the Thai seafood dishes that I ate during my stay in Bangkok. Please forgive me for not knowing all the names and prices. This is because the receipts are not always written in English, and there were several things that could not be clarified after organizing after returning home.
| POO NIME PRIK THAI DUM 250 baht | PAD THAI GOONG MAE NAM YANG 220 baht |
| (Black sauce pepper of fried soft shell crab) | (Fried rice with tamarind sauce and river shrimp noodles) |
| Boo Pat Pong Curry (curry with crab with binding eggs) | Fish soup with porridge |
| Tom Yum Seafood (Seafood Tom Yum Style) | Cow Pat Pooh (crab fried rice) |
| Hoi shell of cheese (baked scallop cheese) | Pam Bat Kaichem (fried squid with yolk) |
| Pam Kuyan (squid baked) | Kao Niao Ma Muang (Mango Suites) |
The situation of fish food in Bangkok
Now, let's summarize this month's issue soon. I know that only moving on and around Bangkok, Thailand for 4 days and 5 days can only be seen on the surface. However, there is no doubt that the trip to Bangkok was a precious experience that could not be obtained with the knowledge of TV images and books.
I wanted to know that as a travel attitude, I couldn't get it with the information I studied in advance. Almost unrelated to that thought, it was a fulfilling 5 days to get to know various circumstances in Thailand.
For example, I thought that the following image was something I knew, but it was actually one of the things I didn't know.
The upper left image is a tilapia native to Africa, which is called Pla Nin in Thailand. And the red fish is Ti Lapia's artificial hybrid, Pla Taptim. The red one is 1.5 to 2 times more expensive than the original black one, but I first learned that there was a red tilapia.
In addition, the upper right image is a giant shrimp, but I didn't know that it was so big. Actually, most of what I see is all I don't know, and it seems like I know it. It was a series of things I didn't know.
In the end, I didn't get the answer to what “Thailand of Smile” meant. However, the impression of Thailand that I received in just three days was "a country where appropriate and good moderation is allowed". Like Japan, there is almost no legal tightening by the country or prefecture, and Thai people lived freely in a form full of vitality, and thought that Thailand could live according to the income that was never high.
Thailand is a developing country in Southeast Asia, and seems to be the most modernized in terms of industry, but I felt that it was still at a fundamental level that had not yet moved out of the agricultural country. As the country is still developing, the administrative legal part can be loose, and I think that is not the case. In a good sense, Thailand felt that it would be better to continue to maintain the "a country where appropriate and good moderation is allowed" feature.
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An opinion and the communication are to iinfo@fish food times
Date of updating 1 Nov. 2019
